What does Article 28 mean in practice for protecting children online?
Eurochild and its member Plataforma de Infancia release a briefing that explains the European Commission’s guidance on Article 28 of the Digital Services Act and outlines what effective, child-rights-based implementation should look like.
Although much work remains to be done, the European Union has taken important steps over recent years to strengthen wellbeing and the protection of human rights, including children’s rights, in the digital environment. This work is particularly important given the EU’s competences and influence: action against large digital companies must be led and coordinated at the EU level in order to be effective and to ensure compliance with their obligations.
In this context, one of the most significant developments has been the Digital Services Act (DSA), which plays a key role in ensuring a safe digital environment for children. In particular, Article 28 requires online platforms to ensure “a high level of privacy, safety and protection of minors on their services”. The European Commission has published guidelines on the implementation of this article, which, while not legally binding, provide important guidance on the measures the Commission considers essential to protect children online.
These guidelines recommend, among other things, that online platforms implement reliable age verification systems, apply privacy-by-default settings for children, refrain from exploiting children’s lack of commercial awareness, and provide accessible, child-friendly reporting, feedback and complaint mechanisms.
To support understanding and implementation of the guidelines, Plataforma de Infancia, together with Eurochild, has produced a short briefing that explains what the Article 28 guidelines say, what measures they recommend, and what they mean for the protection of children in Spain and across the EU. The briefing is intended for child rights organisations, public authorities and regulators, policymakers, education stakeholders, and all actors engaging with platform accountability, including online services themselves.
This briefing aims to support informed action, by helping stakeholders understand what the Article 28 guidelines contain, how they relate to broader DSA obligations, and what effective implementation should look like in practice. We encourage policymakers, regulators, civil society and platforms to use this moment to strengthen coordinated, child-rights-based protections that are responsive to the fast-changing digital environment and that genuinely safeguard the rights of all children.
In Spain, the Digital Services Coordinator will be the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC), which will be responsible for investigating and sanctioning online platforms established in Spain. In this task, the European Commission’s guidelines will serve as a key reference point, although the CNMC may interpret them more strictly or introduce additional requirements.
There are challenges in implementation, and some Member States, including Spain, are advancing national legislation with similar objectives. In this regard, it is essential not only to introduce further measures, but also to ensure coherence, coordination and consistency across different legal and policy frameworks.
Protecting children’s rights in the digital environment requires a shared and collective responsibility across all sectors of society. Online platforms, in particular, have a clear role to play, as it is their products and services that shape children’s digital experiences.
Significant progress has been made in the recognition and understanding that all environments must be safe for children in the physical world, and this approach must be extended to the digital environment as another space in which we live, interact and develop. This must be done in a coordinated and collaborative way between Member States and the European Union. Only then can we achieve legislation that is child-rights-based, responsive to a rapidly evolving digital environment, and truly effective in safeguarding the rights of all children.
